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9.2.16

My love for Frida Kahlo started like how most of my other passions started...through my grandmother. I don't remember when or how the love affair began but it did.

I appreciate her strong sense of individuality and her unwavering passion and devotion for everything she loves.

What makes Frida so inspiring to me is the hardships and the heartbreaks that she endured. I love how she channeled every ounce of her feelings through her art.

Frida painted this self portrait in the summer of 1926. She named it Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress. The story goes that she painted it for her lover at the time, Alejandro. Their relationship was turning sour at the time because Alejandro thought Frida was too liberal and wild. She sent him this painting and promised him that she will be a better person to deserve him. Well that relationship clearly didn't work and along came Diego and the rest is history.

If a seven foot print of Frida Kahlo's self portrait doesn't belong in our house, then I don't know where it would. I also learned that the best way for me to teach the girls about Art history is by surrounding them with Art.

Bella is not a big fan of the painting. She said, "I don't know about her eyebrows." Even though Bella is the more creative and artsy one of the two, she is not as into art history as Aurora. When Aurora saw the print, she said, "That is Frida Kahlo." Then she said, "Well, she is not a very pretty woman but I do like her make up." So of course there was a discussion about how beauty lies in having confidence in yourself and not caring about what others might say about you.

You know sometimes you say things to your children then forget about them? Well today, I was doing my hair and I said, "Aurora, do you like my hair like this or this?" She said as she brushes my cheek gently, "your normal self because I like you just how you are." I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. Well at least I know my love for Mr.Darcy is rubbing off on my children.

With that I will leave you with this quote from Frida.

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you."Be unapologetically you.Love,Victoria